Queensland Man Videotapes Rape of 5 year old stepdaughter

A PEDOPHILE videotaped himself repeatedly raping his five-year-old stepdaughter and then traded the images on the internet, a Brisbane court has been told.

The Court of Appeal heard the man committed the rape after being "worked up" watching child pornography and would have known the effect the tape would have on other pedophiles.

The 31-year-old, who cannot be named, was appealing against the 15-year jail sentence he received earlier this year.

The man pleaded guilty in the District Court in Cairns to 88 child pornography and sex offences.

They included producing and trading child pornography, two of rape, four of incest and 11 of indecent treatment.

In sentencing the man, Judge Sarah Bradley said the child pornography included 17 videos the man made while raping and sexually abusing his step-daughter which were shocking, humiliating and perverted.

She said the images were e-mailed to the US, Canada, Ireland, France and Germany and could never be retrieved.

The man appealed on the grounds his sentence was manifestly excessive when compared with other similar offences.

In the Court of Appeal today, Justice George Fryberg questioned prosecutor David Meredith about how much extra time the man had received on his sentence for putting the images of the rapes on the internet.

Mr Meredith said the man appeared to have received an extra three years jail because of the internet charges.

"He got worked up watching child pornography and and then committed the offences. But he made it even worse by then putting those images on the internet and using them to trade, " he said.

"In that way he endangered other children because he realised the effect it could have on others who might exploit children."

He said the man had used the taped rapes to trade for more pornographic material.

Earlier barrister Jim Bradshaw, defending, said Judge Bradley had used the wrong precedent cases when sentencing his client which made the overall sentence too high.

Mr Bradshaw said his client seemed to have also been more severely punished because he was of high intellegence.

He said child rape was a crime which was universally condemned and it shouldn't matter if someone was a railway fettler or an Oxford don.

The Court of Appeal reserved its judgment.

Courier Mail
Mark Oberhardt
June 17, 2008 12:00pm